The international seminar on documentary film brings together an international community of 100 participants for an intensive gathering of screenings and debates with the presence of 10 guest filmmakers throughout the seminar. With a surprise program right up to the start of each screening, Doc’s Kingdom is an integral and cumulative experience that encompasses film screenings, debates, walks, convivial meals and the collective meeting in an informal and bucolic atmosphere.

Doc’s Kingdom has maintained the same distinctive characteristics since its first edition in 2000: over the course of a week, the same group watches films and talks about them informally; each day includes screenings of films by different filmmakers, proposing dialogue between the authors present and a collective debate open to all participants; since 2013, to encourage full participation in the seminar and intensify the experience of total immersion, the seminar does not announce the program of films in advance; throughout the intensive program of screenings and debates, the experience also includes an encounter with the place where the seminar is held, promoting the relationship with the local community.

Contrary to the quantitative dimension of festivals and the formatting of the academic space, what is proposed here is an experience of cinema and a global human experience, which will hopefully become one and the same. This meeting aims to provide a leap forward in the knowledge and vision of those who take part. On the one hand, through the concentrated experience of screenings and debates. On the other hand, by using the group experience itself as a catalyst and the opportunity to dive into an inspiring place that takes participants out of their usual contexts and invites them to a total immersion experience.

Doc’s Kingdom is organized by Apordoc, with funding from ICA – Instituto do Cinema e do Audiovisual / Ministério da Cultura and with the support of Município de Odemira.